ENG1141

Creative Writing

Formal Critique

Reviewer’s Name: Mohammed Hashim

Title of Piece : The First Day      Author’s Name: Edward P. Jones

Plot: A mother gets her daughter ready to register her to her first new school. She begins by describing how her mother dressed her up for the day and they headed to a school called Seaton Elementary School. The school ends up rejecting them because they don’t live in the required area. Her mother didn’t give up and she took her daughter to a larger, newer school called Walker-Jones. After spending quite a lot of time in the school auditorium her mother got her to register to the new with some help, since her mother didn’t know how to read or write.

Question- What happened to your dad?

Characters: They met another parent with her daughter that came to register, they helped the author’s mother to fill out the form so they can start the registration process. It was pretty cool that the lady helped them fill out their registration papers.

Question- Were you guys friends with the parent and the daughter after you’ve met them in the auditorium?

Point of View: I enjoyed how the daughter described her mother in situations such as trying her best to make her daughter enroll into the best school possible for her.

Setting & Context: The story took place in the US, during the author’s 5 years of age. A hardworking single mother takes her daughter to enroll in school.

Question- What did your mother do for a living during that time?

Voice & Style: The author seems to be grateful but at later times she started being ashamed of her mother as the author mentioned beginning of the story

Question- When and why did you start being ashamed of your mother?